Above, the sanctuary floor of St. William Mission, Hanalei, Kauai is covered with a thin layer of mud April 17 a couple of days after torrential rains send flood waters through the church. (Photo courtesy of St. Catherine Parish)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The mid-April floods that ravaged Kauai’s north shore left the Catholic mission church of St. William unusable as a place of worship, but for now, that’s OK. It has become a relief center.
The 60-year-old Polynesian long house-shaped structure at 5292 Kuhio Highway was “totally flooded,” said pastor Father Anthony Rapozo. The water level rose 14 inches inside the church.
Left, a high water mark of just over 14 inches shows how high the flood water level rose in the church. (Photo courtesy of St. Catherine Parish)
But it was quickly mopped up, the water-soaked items removed, and the damaged pews unbolted from the floor and pushed to the front of the church leaving the back area as a seven-day-a-week distribution center for donated water, clothes, toiletries and canned goods for the area’s many flood victims.
On April 21, Lihue’s Wilcox Medical Center set up a temporary medical clinic for the day in the small parish hall which had been spared flood damage.
St. William in picturesque Hanalei is one of two missions of St. Catherine Parish, a 40-minute drive away in Kapaa. The other, St. Sylvester in Kilauea, sits on higher ground and was not affected by the storm. Neither was St. Catherine.
People have been very generous in assisting the relief effort, said Father Rapozo.
The eighth graders of St. Catherine Parish School in Kapaa donated $1,000 to the parish for flood relief. It’s their class graduation gift, the pastor said. (See “School News” on page 13)
Father Rapozo said that the church also received $5,000 from an anonymous Oahu donor to be used for food aid.
Also “sending in checks,” he said, have been “snowbirds,” mainlanders who visit Kauai from November through April. And local parishioners are bringing in donations “every day.”
Still there is still a great need on the island for many, he said, far beyond the parish’s ability to help, particularly those who have lost their homes.
The mission lost its sound system, some chairs and music stands, its carpeting, and the contents of lower storage cabinets, including vestments, altar clothes, Christmas decorations and other things. (See list on this page)
The pastor, a Kauai native, said by phone April 19 that he had never before experienced a storm of the intensity that hit the northern parts of the island that weekend. Parts of the island sustained millions of dollars of damage to buildings and roads as more than 50 inches of rain over a 24-hour period created head-high torrents that felled huge trees and tossed cars around like toys.
The church was inaccessible for several days because the road in was blocked by debris.
Father Rapozo was able to get to the mission on Monday, April 17, at around 3 p.m. to assess the damage. Over the next two days, he and a group of parishioners cleaned up the church.
The church, which the pastor said seats a maximum of around 200, will be closed for Mass indefinitely. Its one scheduled Sunday Mass at 9 a.m. is being celebrated at St. Sylvester in Kilauea, eight miles east.
St. Catherine Parish and its two missions are well known for its display of works by famous Island artists. St. William’s Stations of the Cross, by well-known muralist Jean Charlot, were undamaged by the flooding.
Parts of Koloa, on the south side of the island, also were flooded but the Catholic church there, St. Raphael, escaped damage except for a number of shingles blown off the roof.
Oahu parish church spared
On Oahu, in East Honolulu, the neighborhoods of Kuliouou and Aina Haina were hit hard by floods from the same storm system, but their parish church of Holy Trinity escaped damage.
“We were really very blessed,” said Charlotte White, a parish office volunteer speaking on behalf of the pastor, Capuchin Franciscan Father Michel Dalton, April 20.
The storm waters spread mud, rocks and debris throughout the church parking lot and grounds, but it was cleaned up within a day by parishioners armed with power washers.
White said Father Dalton “reached out” to the pastor of Calvary by the Sea Lutheran Church and Preschool in Aina Haina which was heavily damaged by flood waters, offering Holy Trinity parish facilities for their use. The church did not find it necessary to do so.
The former parish two-story school building could not accommodate the Calvary preschool because the bottom floor was already in use and, by law, a preschool cannot be on the second floor, White explained.
Kneelers and speakers
Here is a complete list of the items lost by St. William Mission in the April flooding.
- Pews (34)
- Portable kneelers (4)
- Altar kneeler (1)
- Confession kneeler with screen wall
- Choir chairs (9)
- Sanctuary chairs (6)
- Music stands (4)
- Electronic keyboard (1)
- Choir mixer (1) and amplifier (2)
- Guitar amplifier (1)
- Microphone stands (4)
- Microphone wires (6)
- Side tables (6)
- Ambos (2)
- Woofers (speakers) (2)
- Carpet entire church worship space
- Doors water damage (10)
- Christmas trees (2)
- Christmas decorations (3 containers)
- Altar linens
- Liturgical banners
- Liturgical vestments (priest and altar servers albs)
- Main church’s sound system (3 amplifier, 1 mixer)
- Vacuum cleaners (2)
- Standing fans (4)
- Office furniture (3 chairs, 1 desk, 1 couch, 1 mirror,)
- Sacristy furniture (1 round table, 1 dresser, 1 cabinet)
- Hawaiian baskets for collection (8)
- Custom music books (1 box)
- Liturgical cinctures and crosses
- Incense (2 boxes)
To help, contact Father Anthony Rapozo at 808-822-7900, stcatherine@rcchawaii.org, or write to St. Catherine Church, 5021-A Kawaihau Road, Kapaa, HI 96746.
